


strawberry

by shutupnerd



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Gift Fic, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Game(s), Secret Santa, Strawberries, Summer, for these fruits, lol, lots of fruit, references to ingame stuff, strawberry house is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28553028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shutupnerd/pseuds/shutupnerd
Summary: the boys go berry picking (and perhaps to find some peace and quiet.)
Relationships: Hinata Hajime/Komaeda Nagito
Comments: 5
Kudos: 132





	strawberry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cooorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cooorn/gifts).



> hello! this was part of a secret santa exchange for my lovely friend corin !! <3

The air was full and heavy with the scent of strawberries ripening under a summer sun. The sky was blue for now, black storm clouds piling up on the edge of the horizon. They’d blow in sooner rather than later, but Hajime pushed them out of his mind. That was a problem he’d deal with at another time. (Deal with, he thinks. As if someone can “deal with” the weather.) 

They have baskets in hand and the nearest person is over a mile away. It’s just them, the sun, and a strawberry field. He wasn’t sure if someone planted them and left, or if a wild batch was left unattended to grow out on all sides. No matter what the answer was, it had been a long time since the berries found their beginning. The field was covered with vines and fruit, packed in densely enough to make them watch their step when they stepped into the strawberry haze. 

“And how did you find this place, Hajime?” Komaeda asked, dropping down to his knees to begin picking. “I don’t think strawberries are native to a tropical island, after all.” 

“I was out walking and I just...found it. I come here when I want some peace and quiet, mostly. Or something to eat when it’s nice out.”

“And you’d bring me out to your quiet place? There aren’t very many of those around here.”

He shrugged, kneeling beside Komaeda. He didn’t bring any gloves, content to let anything overripe burst onto his hands and stain them red for the rest of the day. “I thought you’d appreciate it. Sometimes I think you need a quiet place to go more than I do.” 

“That is true,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “It can get...too loud.” Hajime had seen Komaeda get overwhelmed more than once. It exhausted him, trying to hide that he heard and saw too much all at once. He’d discreetly try and cover his ears or retreat to the corner, tug on Hajime’s sleeve if he really needed to go then and there. “But you didn’t need to give up your own space for that.” 

“I don’t think I’m giving it up. Think of it as us sharing. After all, there’s plenty of space and strawberries for us both.” He bit into a particularly ripe one, savoring the way it practically exploded in his mouth. They tasted different from the boxes of them his parents would occasionally bring home--these were untended to by human hands, growing only as they wished and willed. That made them sweeter, somehow. That they’d pushed through on their own merits, survived everything thrown at them and even thrived, taking over this field and rejoicing in it. 

Komaeda hummed and nodded, his basket slowly filling up. There would be grass stains on his knees when he stood again, but Hajime didn’t think he would care very much about that. “If you say so, love. But is that the only reason you brought us out here?” 

No, not really. He swallowed hard and looked over. He really was beautiful, the sun catching in his hair and eyes and settling him aglow in the light. Every part of him fit together in a way that just wanted to make Hajime hold him and keep him safe from everything that could possibly hurt him. (Hadn’t he been through enough? Hadn’t all of them been through enough?) 

“Well...not exactly.” He picked a small blossom from the plant in front of him and sat down fully on the warm earth beneath him, hoping he hadn’t found a seat atop any burst strawberries. “I guess I just wanted some alone time with you. Some real alone time, where nobody can just burst in at a moment’s notice, you know?” 

They shared a cabin, but a closed door didn’t exactly ensure privacy. There always seemed to be someone on the doorstep with a new problem that only Hajime could solve, or a new event everyone felt obligated to attend. Nobody came out here. Nobody really knew this place existed. There were no emails to respond to in the dead of night or random things he was expected to deal with since he was the “leader.” (Though he didn’t often feel like much of a leader at all.)

“I appreciate it,” he said quietly. Komaeda picked up a flower of his own, letting it rest in a palm already stained with berry juice. Hajime had to remind himself that it was just that, that there was nothing more sinister darkening his hands. If he let himself get lost in his own thoughts, sometimes, while he was laying down next to a sleeping Ko, he’d lift the covers just to make sure there wasn’t a spear in his stomach. It was easier, now, in the sunlight. There was proof in the daytime that he was alright. Well, as alright as Komaeda could be. 

“You seem stressed, love,” he said, then, tucking the flower behind Hajime’s ear. It was a little thing, one that would surely fall out and he wouldn’t notice until it was too late. “What’s on your mind?”

He shrugged, staring up at the sky. The clouds were creeping up slowly on them, sure to eventually open up and drench them to the skin. “Same as it always is, I guess. Too much to do and not enough time to do it all.” 

“You know, you can always ask for help. Or say no. There’s nothing more hopeless than crushing yourself under all that work.” Komaeda scooted closer to him, closing his hand over Hajime’s. Their baskets and stomachs were full of strawberries. The air was warm and heavy, promising rain soon to come. 

“It’s not like I  _ want  _ to do everything,” he mumbled. “There’s just nobody else to do it.” 

“Sure there is. You’re not the only one who lives here, are you?” Komaeda had a fond, wistful look on his face. “But we don’t have to deal with that right now. This is your--”

“Our.”

“-- _ our  _ resting place. There’s no need to worry about anything while you’re here.” Komaeda moved, gently easing Hajime’s head into his lap. “That’s why we came here, right? To rest and just spend a little time together?” 

“I love you,” he whispered, closing his eyes. “I brought us up here so you could relax, but you ended up helping me instead, huh?”

“It’s a little funny like that, sometimes. But I would say you succeeded regardless.” He ran slender fingers through Hajime’s hair, smiling gently down at him. “I always feel calm when I’m around you. Just spending time with you is always a gift.” 

Hajime blushed, resisting the urge to cover his face when Komaeda _ giggled  _ at him. But it was relieving, comforting, really. It was a beautiful thing to know that their feelings mirrored so perfectly. Hajime felt safe with Komaeda. Komaeda felt safe with Hajime. 

He laid down too, so they both stared at the sky and the clouds piling up over them. The closer they got, the nastier they looked. Thunder began to growl, but they didn’t move. 

“If I fall asleep and wake up to getting soaked, I’m going to be  _ really  _ mad,” Hajime grumbled good-naturedly. “I just washed this shirt.”

“Well, it would be washed again, then, wouldn’t it? The rain will get all that strawberry juice off your hands.”

They went silent for a while.

The rain got closer and closer. 

“Ko--Nagito…” Hajime sat up, taking in his knees to his chest. 

“Yes?”

“It was the Strawberry House where you found out that I was Reserve, right? That was where you played Russian roulette.” And won. Just barely. 

A flash of hurt rocketed through his stomach. 

Nagito sat up as well, placing a hand on his shoulder. “...yes. But that was almost two years ago, wasn’t it?” He spared a glance down at his hands, as if he’d find a gun or a book of files with Hope’s Peak’s seal there. Hajime couldn’t pick which one would be worse. “It really was quite a while ago, now. Even with my memory being as shoddy as it is, I find it hard to forget much of anything that happened in that program.” Their eyes met and Hajime could sense him inspecting his heterochromia. “Why?” 

He picked a strawberry off the vine and stared too hard at it. His brain began to work in overdrive, numbering the amount of seeds (196) on the berry while he formulated a response that wasn’t quite so pathetic. The hatred Nagito had displayed for him had been short and sour and it still haunted Hajime almost every night. He’d really thought the man had died hating him for deceiving them all. 

“I don’t know. I was just...thinking about it.”

Nagito sighed. “I’m not sure if I regret saying what I did to you. Undoubtedly it was horrible and affected you greatly, but...I really did think you were lying to us all, just trying to weasel your way in. Of course, now that it’s all in a different light and I have some of my memory and you have all of yours...it’s different, now.”

Hajime reached up and touched the scar on his forehead. There were more than just that, but it was by far the most prominent one. Sometimes the others would stare at it when he was talking to them, and it’d take him a moment to realize that they weren’t looking him in the eye. Nagito never did that. 

“I don’t harbor a grudge or anything, I just…”

“You wouldn’t be wrong if you did.”

Hajime sighed, then, leaning forward. Tucking his chin on top of his knees, feeling the first drop of rain patter on his face. “I think about it a lot. I know I shouldn’t, but sometimes I still get scared that you still feel that way, you know?” 

Nagito rubbed circles into his shoulder with this thumb, the rain beginning in a slow drizzle. They’d be drenched before long. It wasn’t as if either of them really cared.

“I am not the same man who was in that program. I promise you that if I harbored any resentment...especially to that degree...you would know. I wouldn’t be out here with you.”

“I know. I know.” 

The temperature was slowly dropping. Nagito shrugged his coat back on, turning up his hood. Hajime didn’t move. He just stared up, his mind almost as cloudy as the sky above him. 

Nagito shifted, moved so that he was directly in Hajime’s line of sight. “You upset yourself, didn’t you?” He took him by the hand. “Got lost in your head again?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Sorry. This was supposed to be for you,” he mumbled, the nerves in his hands crackling at the contact. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

“I’ll always worry about you,” he said, tapping Hajime on the nose. “Just like you always worry about me...right? We’re allowed to worry about each other.” He took a strawberry and pressed it into Hajime’s hand. It was perfect--in both shape, size and color, and if Hajime bit into it he knew it would taste perfect too. Nagito’s luck, leading him to something perfect. Had it been his luck to bring the storm? 

Lightning cracked across the sky.

“Yeah. We are.”

“Are you okay, Hajime?”

“Yes.” He smiled a bit and meant his words. He leaned forward, water dripping down his face, and kissed Nagito softly on the mouth. He tasted like summer. A real summer, too, not something made of pixels and perfectly controlled weather. “Are you okay, Nagito?”

“I’ve never been better.” He kissed back, soft and sweet, the rain running down their faces. “Thank you for bringing me here, Hajime. I enjoyed it.”

“We don’t have to go anywhere. Let’s just sit in the rain for a bit. It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

“Yes...yes, it is.”

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed! take care of yourself today :) 
> 
> -fen <3


End file.
